LineageOS 16 is out and here is the LineageOS 16 GApps zip File download for Android Pie 9 based ROMs. You need the Lineage OS 16 GApps zip file for any LineageOS 16 based Custom ROMs to install any Google Applications.

Android Pie was released only a few days ago hence we have only a few options of LineageOS 16 GApps to download for Android Pie based ROMs.

Why the LineageOS 16 GApps is not part of Lineage OS 16 ROM??

Android being an Open Source Project is free to use but the underlying Application are not. Because of the Open Source nature of Android many developers started developing their version of Androids for example: CyanogenMod which has their own set of features on top of Stock Android Source code.

Android is owned and developed by Google and hence it delivers all the google made Applications such as: Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and many other applications with almost all Android devices.

It was back in 2009 during the development of CyanogenMod 4.1 Google sent a letter to Steve Kondik (Co-founder of CyanogenMod) to remove all the Google Applications from CyanogenMod ROM. After this conflict, any Android ROM be it the stock AOSP code, LineageOS or any other ROM does not include any proprietary application.

Wanna read more on this then here is link on Wikipedia on this matter.

Why to flash Lineage OS 16 GApps??

Android is open to use but because of the above fact that no Google proprietary applications can be included while shipping an Android ROM with branding such as CyanogenMod ROM, LineageOS, Resurrection Remix OS, OmniROM, etc.

These open source custom ROMs do not pay any royalty to Android’s owner Google and probably that’s the reason they are not allowed to use any third party proprietary applications (at least Google’s) in their ROMs.

Because Google’s applications are not free and are not allowed to be in a custom ROM, they are being extracted from some OEM’s devices such as Google Pixel devices and are made available as a recovery flashable zip file.

Usually these Lineage OS 16 GApps include all Google Apps (Gmail, YouTube, Chrome, Calendar etc.) or at least the basic Google Apps such as: Google Play Services and Google play. – Without these applications you cannot download any application because there would not be any Google Play Store.

LineageOS 16 GAPPS DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR ALL ARCHITECTURES:

Widely used Gapps is from opengapps which is usually available in the following: pico, nano, micro, mini, full, stock, super and aroma variants. The basic difference among all is the availability of Google Applications and the package size.

– Starting from pico GApps version, it will have some basic GApps like the Play Store and Google setup but not more than that. Using the Play Store you can download all other Google Apps easily of your choice. In terms of size this will be the smallest possible package available which occupies 92MB for Android Oreo. – Similarly the Aroma GApps contains all available Google Applications and is of size 757MB for Android Oreo

ARM32 LineageOS 16 GApps download:

How to install LineageOS 16 GApps zip file:

These GApps are all recovery flashable zip packages, which means you can install these GApps on Lineage OS 16 based custom ROMs using custom recoveries like TWRP, LineageOS recovery or PhilZ recovery etc. Here is a guide explaining How to install GApps using TWRP recovery